I commend Olly for his outspoken support for equal marriage, a policy which Liberal Youth is fully behind. One of the many functions of the youth wing of a political party is to hold their superiors to account, as well as bridging the vast generational gap between the new breed ofpolitical activists and MPs.

YI have made clear they are unhappy with their party’s stance on equal marriage yet, instead of engaging with their concerns, the party saw fit to remove their Chair in the hope this problem would go away.

To see any party – but especially one which prides itself on its Libertarian nature – treat its own members like this is nothing short of appalling, and the vocal outrage from within YI is understandable, and I hope youth wings from all parties will join us in condemning
this cowardly act.

Liberal Democrats have always been sceptical of large & powerful institutions, such as the European Union, so would welcome anyone who considers themselves a Eurosceptic.

If any Young Independence members want to join a party with truly liberal values, our door is always open.

The Liberal Democrats are pro-European, but we have never been blind to its shortcomings. We are reformists at the European level just as we are reformists at Westminster, in the devolved assemblies and a local level.

There is nothing as quintessentially Liberal Democrat as a suspicion of concentrations of power. That is just as true of the European Union as it is of the Home Office. It’s just that our defences of civil liberties have tended to catch more media attention than our campaigns – or anybody else’s – to change structures or policy at the European level.

The Lib Dems are the most Pro-European of the 3 political parties. Ironically, it is the Lib Dems that hide behind ‘libertarian’ values yet support one of the most bureaucratic institutions (the EU). UKIP’s policy on gay marriage has always been very clear, namely that the state should not get involved in telling the church what to do. UKIP still supports civil partnerships, but does not want to brand it as ‘marriage’ since they feel that isn’t the governments right to get involved with.